


Hook in the Heart

by Kat_d86



Series: Lucifer's Orbit [4]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst, Devil face, Gen, homeless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 02:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18511636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_d86/pseuds/Kat_d86
Summary: Meghan had to go west and she had to go south and she couldn’t say why. She’d blown all her savings getting to LA and no she sat under Santa Monica Pier knowing it was exactly where she HAD to be.





	Hook in the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it would be interesting to shine a light on the world surrounding Lucifer and how he affected those around him without focusing too much on the Devil himself. This one is set sometime after the end of Season 3.
> 
> Rather darker turn that the others in this series but it's where my brain went and I just followed where it led

Los Angeles wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows like the movies. The winter was a far cry from how bad things could get back home in Missouri but it still rained and at night it got cold. Megan huddled under her blanket as a pair of drunks staggered by in the dark and she tried not to be noticed. Everyone had said she’d been crazy to come here. But it was like a hook in her heart, like she had to go west and she had to go south and she couldn’t say why. She’d blown all her savings getting here and spent her last few dollars on a crappy sandwich from the bus station vending machine. That had been months ago and she hadn’t had a proper meal since. The same feeling had pulled her to the beach like a siren song and now she sat under Santa Monica Pier with the absolute certainty that this was where she was supposed to be. 

The vendors on the pier had told her there had been a shooting a week or so before she arrived. Apparently, in the middle of it all some woman had fallen over the railing really close to where Megan now sat. If anyone had bothered to ask her Megan was pretty sure she could point out the exact spot where the woman had landed. There wasn’t any reason for her to believe this, she just knew. She could feel it, the same way she had felt compelled to come all the way to L.A. in the first place. It was further out from the pier that you’d expect but there was a warmth to the spot she had found that just seemed to envelope her and feel, well…right. Like her Mom was wrapping her up in a hug. 

She’d sit there as long as she could until people complained, and the cops came to move her along. Then she would stay away for a day or so until people forgot about her and she could come back. She knew it was the smart thing to do, to avoid getting arrested, but it was getting harder and harder to stay away. Even leaving to try and get food left her feeling agitated. What if something happened whilst she was away, what if someone else found it and tried to take it from her. It was like part of her soul was constantly being pulled to that spot and she couldn’t break away.

She used to spend her nights in a homeless shelter, now she risked sleeping out in the open under the pier so she could be closer to it. She still didn’t know why, and she had given up trying to explain it to herself. All she knew was that she wanted it and she couldn’t bear it if anyone tried to take it away from her. The lights and music of the pier filtered down from above her and she looked over to see if the way was clear. Maybe she could go and sit there for a while without anyone noticing.

Someone was there. 

Someone was standing right next to her spot. 

Fear gripped her as she realised someone else must have figured out what it was and she ran out from her hiding place. She forgot all about not trying to draw attention as she ran into the man at full speed to try and push him away. She bounced off as if she had just hit a brick wall and landed on the sand in a daze. The man turned with a bemused expression, as if he had barely even noticed her actions, as she scrabbled to her feet.

“You can’t have it! It’s MINE!” she screamed and tried to push him away again. She shoved with all her might but he didn’t even budge an inch. The only result was her own feet digging furrows in the sand until she toppled over and fell back to her hands and knees.

“And what, pray tell, can’t I have?” The tall man asked. She couldn’t tell if he was irritated or amused.

“It’s my spot, I found it. It’s MINE!” she sobbed and crawled forward until she sat directly in the centre of it. She felt the same warming glow infuse through her and took several deep breaths as the weight of the world seemed to melt away. “It’s mine” she insisted, and the dark-haired stranger looked down at her with a slight tilt of his head.

“Well, that’s interesting” He glanced down and looked her in the eye, “Tell my, child, how long have you been coming here?” His brown eyes seemed to add to the warmth she was feeling and she found herself wanting to answer him.

“A few months. It….. it feels like Mom’s hugs” Everything seemed so much easier to deal with when she sat here. Like it was in slow motion and she had all the time in the world to think of an answer. “Why are you here?” She managed to ask.

“I come here on occasion.” He stood back as he spoke and eyed her curiously. “It was the last place I saw my Mother” he added.

“Did she go away?” Megan asked and the stranger huffed.

“Yes, very far away” he replied and it took a moment for her to realise that he wasn’t looking at her but the area where she was sitting. 

“Was she the one who fell off the pier?” She asked and his attention snapped back to her face.

“Yes” He answered, eventually. He sounded sad and she realised she had never asked any of the vendors of the woman had survived or not. Obviously he was upset because she had died and she found herself shuffling up slightly. 

“Do you wanna share? It feels nice” she offered. He didn’t seem like he wanted to take it away from her and she felt like she could trust him, like there was something familiar about him. He looked at the damp sand next to where she sat and paused briefly. He stepped forward but didn’t sit down, instead he held his hand out to the air above her head as if he was feeling for something. She wasn’t sure what he was doing but she felt the need to keep talking. “My Dad went away too. Mom wasn’t very happy after but there wasn’t much I could do. It’s been just me and her ever since. Then I got pulled this was, like I’d never wanted anything so much before in my life. Mom cried but I couldn’t say no to it, so I left and here I am”

“I never thought I’d want anything as much as I wanted….. never mind.” The stranger stopped himself and Megan found herself feeling sorry for him. 

“You can share my spot if you want, as long as you don’t tell anyone else.”

“You should leave” The man said and she turned to look at him sharply. “Humans shouldn’t be able to detect these things. It will harm you”

“I can manage” She said and he shook his head.

“No, you can’t. It’s a scar in reality. It’s feeding off your soul to repair itself. You should go home before it kills you” He stated plainly and she stared in confusion as she tried to understand what he was talking about.

“But…” She started and the man turned his head towards her. For an instant the dark, brooding, eyes were replaced by burning red coals and the hansom face became a scarred mess of twisted, burnt flesh. Megan tumbled backwards with a scream, out of the comforting warmth, and tried to crawl away from the nightmare that had just presented itself to her. The man thing strode towards her and reached into his jacket.

“Go home” he commanded and threw down what was in his hand. She stared, dumbfounded, at the folded stack of hundred dollar bills that hit the sand in front of her. “Your Mother will be worried about you” and with that the stranger turned and walked away. 

Megan watched him go, locked in place by her own terror, until he was out of sight. She crawled forward and hesitantly picked up the money with a shaking hand. She half expected it to burn her fingers but the silver clip that held it together was cool to the touch. She wanted to sit back down in her spot. She could feel it calling to her. But the image of the terrifying face was burned into her memory and she found herself recoiling from the patch of sand she had, until now, been so addicted to. She staggered to her feet and wondered how far away she could get with the money he had given her. All the way back home? Further, maybe? She didn’t care. All she knew was the overriding compulsion to stay in LA had been replaced by the desire to leave as quickly as possible. To get as far away as she could from the monster that had just revealed itself to her. She ran, not even stopping to collect her meagre belongings and left, never return. 

Lucifer didn’t look back after giving his command to the young woman he had met on the beach. The girl seemed to have no more than the slightest of psychic gifts, enough to notice a breach in Creation but not enough to recognise what it was or the dangers it presented. It sounded like a tremendous high and he was sure he would have felt the ‘Mom’s hugs’ the girl described if he had allowed the residual rift to draw off his energy. However, any celestial power it took from him would be lost forever so he knew that, despite his curiosity, he would never try it.

Perhaps there was a better way he could have made the girl leave without resorting to his Devil Face? Yet, he couldn’t think of anything that would have been as affective in the short amount of time he was willing to spend on the matter. He was slightly surprised she had lasted this long. She’d had perhaps another week at most before her soul was expended and she’d have died. It was only her mentioning her Mother that had made him act at all. He didn’t really care if she ever got over the sight. There was currently only one person he wanted to recover from seeing his true face but, even if she did, he knew things between him and The Detective would never be the same again.


End file.
